On Cognitive Flexibility, Learning Agility and Plasticine!

Alex Gray, writing on the recent The World Economic Forum posted a slide of the importance of cognitive flexibility, which we could define as the ability to think about different concepts simultaneously and to be able to switch from one pattern of thinking to another.

McGowan develops this notion in response to the growing threat/opportunity of automation and other technologies, including machine learning, which is transforming our concepts of knowledge and education as well as, I would suggest, the qualities of humanness.

Great ideas, but how do you communicate that to learners you encounter in classrooms and workshops in a more tangible way? One way, which I used a few years ago, when I was taking a course on Presentational Skills and had to devise a persuasive topic for a workshop, was to use plasticine as a analogy and tangible teaching tool. My workshop was to persuade my colleagues as to why workers needed to embrace a ‘plasticine mindset’ in order to find a job in an economy in which growing technologies, outsourcing, automation, and manufacturing decline are all features.

Why plasticine? Well, it is flexible. It is highly responsive to change. It can take on many physical forms and could be used to symbolize an experience. It’s not a perfect analogy; plasticine cannot think (although sometimes it feels like it has mind of its own ) nor can it reflect. Yet, it can capture the notion of flexibility and agility, increasingly key concepts in leadership, management, education, organizational behaviour and change, in a remarkable facile way.